Qualcomm seeks to block NVIDIA's $40 billion bid to buy ARM

It was back in September when we told you that GPU designer NVIDIA had agreed to pay $40 billion for ARM Holdings. The latter's main business is the design of CPU cores and the company was owned by SoftBank. The Japanese tech firm will reportedly turn an $8 billion profit on the transaction once it closes. To close, the purchase of ARM by NVIDIA will need to be approved by regulators around the world.
Qualcomm seeks to block NVIDIA's $40 billion acquisition of ARM by filing complaints with various regulatory agencies
One of the sources adds that "The incentive (for ARM) is to share its technology with as many people as possible, and the only thing they can get in exchange for that is royalties. That creates trust between ARM and its licensees. These licensees feed information to ARM that can (help it to) make better products to enable the next generation (of products) to obtain more revenues. It’s a virtuous cycle."
In addition to Qualcomm, U.K. AI chip start-up firm Graphcore has spoken with the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority to complain about the transaction. The company's CEO, Nigel Toon, told CNBC in December that he sees the deal as being anti-competitive. He said, "It risks closing down or limiting other companies' access to leading-edge CPU processor designs which are so important across the technology world, from data centers, to mobile, to cars and in embedded devices of every kind."
NVIDIA, as you might expect, has a different point of view about its possible acquisition of ARM. The graphics chip designer said, "As we proceed through the review process, we’re confident that both regulators and customers will see the benefits of our plan to continue ARM's open licensing model and ensure a transparent, collaborative relationship with ARM's licensees. Our vision for ARM will help all ARM licensees grow their businesses and expand into new markets." While NVIDIA is the largest GPU supplier in the world, ARM is the third largest which could allow those opposed to the deal to use antitrust arguments in an attempt to block it.
Besides Qualcomm, other big tech firms like Google and Microsoft are also demanding that regulators block the deal from going through.